The exhibition, promoted by CENIE and the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, will be open to visitors until September 23rd at the International Spanish Center.
The president of the Economic and Social Council of Portugal, Luís Antunes, officially opened the exhibition Talent Has No Age today—a space where memory becomes art and experience is recognized as an essential part of the present. During the event, Antunes emphasized that “it is essential to build societies where age is not a limitation but an added value,” highlighting the institutional commitment to an inclusive vision of talent.
The inauguration also featured Óscar González Benito, director of the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, who, as host of the exhibition, remarked: “We are still heavily influenced by stereotypes that associate youth with talent or creativity. At CENIE, we work to break that mistaken perception and to highlight age as a source of experience and potential—something this exhibition contributes to.”
Starting today, the International Spanish Center opens its doors to an exhibition that journeys through rural Spain via 23 works by the Salamanca-born artist Félix Felmart, celebrating old age as a fertile stage of creativity and emotional depth.
With a highly distinctive pictorial technique, rich in texture and living matter—vessels, wheels, vases—Felmart’s pieces recover scenes from rural life that dwell on the edges of collective memory, yet lie at the heart of our identity. A grandmother’s kitchen, flowers, a bike ride… each painting is a reflection of our society.
Also participating was renowned photographer Luis Malibrán, who, in his talk titled How to Look?, offered a personal reflection on age and talent. He aligned himself with Felmart’s message, inviting us to rethink not only what we see, but the perspective from which we see it. In Malibrán’s words, this exhibition is “a journey through Felmart’s most personal and profound rural Spain, evoking a past that hasn’t disappeared, but merely sleeps in memory—and awakens with a wood-fired kitchen, dried flowers, or the scent of a house that is always home.”
During the visit, the artist himself offered a guided tour of the works, pausing at each piece to explain its origin, the symbolism of the objects, and the memories that inspired them.
An Exhibition That Challenges and Transforms
“Talent Has No Age” presents itself as an artistic, ethical, and social statement. Promoted by CENIE and the General Foundation of the University of Salamanca, the exhibition forms part of the New Long-Lived Societies project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg VI-A Spain–Portugal Programme. The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança and the Economic and Social Council of Portugal are also partners in this initiative.
Through art, the exhibition raises an essential question: why do we still measure talent by age? How many ideas have we lost by ignoring someone's creativity simply because of how old they are? In every piece by Felmart, there's an answer: talent doesn’t retire and doesn’t expire—it transforms and keeps creating.
What Matters Most Is What’s Lived
The exhibition is open to visitors free of charge from today until September 23rd. Throughout the summer, the public will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a world of simple beauty—where objects speak, landscapes breathe, and aging is revealed as what it truly is: a form of wisdom, memory, and art.
In the artist’s own words: “I paint what I’ve lived and what I still remember. Age doesn’t take away my creativity—it gives me depth.”
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Dates: July 4th to September 23rd, 2025
Location: International Spanish Center – University of Salamanca (C/ Zamora, 32)
Admission: Free
Organized by: General Foundation of the University of Salamanca – CENIE
Collaborators: Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Economic and Social Council of Portugal
Co-funded by: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – Interreg VI-A Spain–Portugal